I was so intrigued by the launch of the new Atlas Edge Leeds data centre that I made the long trek north to attend the grand opening. This was my first visit to an Atlas Edge facility, but not my first visit to this site. Colo-X has placed several clients here over the past few years with the still-in-situ managed service provider, Hardy Fisher.
I was impressed by the fact Atlas Edge CEO, Giuliano Di Vitantonio, was there to open what is currently only a 180-rack data centre. It was also a pleasure to talk to him about their wider plans. And I was impressed by the impact Atlas Edge’s £13m investment has had on the site, as it now offers the Leeds and Yorkshire data centre market a true Tier 3 data centre.
The growing UK regional data centre market
Colo-X has been excited about the arrival of several new regional or ‘edge-focussed’ data centre operators into the UK market over the past few years. We’ve now closed business with a number of these operators in locations including South Wales, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leeds.
In our view, an increase in choice is a good thing for colocation buyers – particularly after the long-running consolidation we’ve seen in the industry.
It’s also been notable that about half of Colo-X’s 250 annual enquiries are now for the UK’s regional market. This up from 30% in 2020, so a significant shift from the historic focus on the London and M25 market. Thus, these new operators and locations are meeting a growing need – especially as more and more enterprise clients move from historic ‘on-prem’ solutions to a third-party data centre.
Mixed quality so far in the regional market (PUE really matters now!)
While the increased choice is welcome, we’ve been a little underwhelmed by the quality of some of these new sites. This is often due to poor power usage effectiveness (PUE) – something common in older data centres premises that have not yet benefitted from fresh investment.
Simply changing the name on the door or painting the reception area doesn’t address the performance of the underlying data centre, and the result can be a commercial challenge.
Colo-X has seen clients sacrifice convenience of location (ie a preferable, more-local solution) for more attractive terms in a distant location. This is especially so where good on-site support is available as it reduces the need for in-person site visits.
One advantage of Colo-X having such a wide industry perspective is we can make buyers aware of the full range of options available, often suggesting alternatives they might never have considered or even been aware of.
It’s certainly been the case that that PUE – the most widely used efficiency metric for data centres –wasn’t such an issue until the power price surge of the past few years. But with power prices still towards 30p/kWh, the actual cost difference between a data centre operating at, say, 1.1 or 1.2, compared with 1.5 (or more in some cases) is now substantial.
So, we give credit to Atlas Edge on their investment in their new Leeds facility, both in terms of its transformation to a true Tier 3 site and the improvement in overall efficiency. These are the benefits of such a big parent, it would seem.
About Atlas Edge
Atlas Edge was founded in May 2021 by Liberty Global and DigitalBridge. Liberty Global is the owner of Virgin Media O2 in the UK, and other telecom assets across Europe. DigitalBridge is a huge American digital infrastructure investment firm that claims USD$80bn in assets under its management. It also has investments in other data centre operators such as Vantage, and fibre network operator Zayo.
The rationale behind the joint venture was that the Liberty Global operating companies would provide hundreds of locations across the four European countries they operate in, and essentially be the anchor tenants in these sites. This would offer a ready-made edge platform, with DigitalBridge providing fresh capital to expand the locations as well as launch into new ones.
Atlas Edge has already made several acquisitions in Germany and Europe to broaden its European footprint. The Leeds site was one such acquisition, having been acquired in February 2022 (though perhaps at a much smaller scale than the company’s other purchases).
At present Atlas Edge is operating in 12 countries and 18 markets across Europe. Its portfolio seems to offer a range of sites, with the smaller ones, such as the new 180-rack Leeds site, focussed for so-called ‘edge plays’. Meanwhile, larger sites offering 10MW or more are geared to hyperscale users. For example, their recently opened Hamburg-1 data centre is scalable to 20MW.
Atlas Edge in the UK
Atlas Edge has three data centres in the UK at present, with the other two being the former Colt Wapping data centre, and the former Virgin Media data centre on Broadway in Manchester. The Colt Wapping site has apparently undergone upgrade and refurbishment since becoming part of Atlas Edge. The 300-rack Virgin Media site in has the benefit of being close to Media City and Salford Quays.
Atlas Edge has planning permission to significantly expand capacity in their Manchester location, by up to 500 racks in two new data centre buildings. But I don’t believe they have started construction yet, and are focussing instead on selling existing capacity available in the site, which is estimated at around 100 racks.
With numerous new data centres either recently opened in the Manchester market (such as Equinix’s MA5) or about to open (such as Datum’s new 4MW facility in Wythenshawe) Atlas Edge may take their time on pushing ahead with their own expansion here.
Atlas Edge Leeds: re-opening further to a £13m upgrade
As mentioned, Colo-X has been working with this site for many years. It’s been an option in the market for some time, dating back to the early 2000s when it was part of ISP Pipex.
For a long while, it was wholly occupied by British Telecom, who serviced a large NHS contract here before the site re-entered the colocation market. One benefit of this longevity is a pretty decent carrier list, with Zayo, Openreach, Virgin, CityFibre, EuNetworks, Colt, GTT and Gamma fibre available.
The new single, large data hall offers 180 rack spaces, with eight contained hot-aisle pods and claimed power densities of up to 10kW per rack. Power distribution is underfloor and data overhead. Other details include dual, diverse 3.4MW power feeds, n+n generators with 72 hours of on-site fuel, and 24/7 on-site security.
All in all, it’s a genuinely impressive facility for the north-east UK market.
Most Colo-X users, and those wanting a fully inclusive package of colocation, network and support, will continue to be well served by our long-standing partner and the largest existing client in the site, Hardy Fisher Services. But larger clients wanting a pure colocation-only solution, the option of dealing directly with Atlas Edge is now available.
For colocation pricing from quarter racks upwards, just fill in our quote request form, or call or email us.
We usually supply costs and information within 60 minutes during office hours.
